More pooing and froing (chuckle)

Yesterday was at my house again, we needed a bit more poo for the small garden here so rather then take the car down the track and get bogged down again, we drove up with the car and trailer and parked it outside John's house, walked down his garden to where the horses are and just wheel barrowed a few loads straight into the trailer, fine you might say but the biggest task was getting it into the garden here as we are directly on the road and the only access is through the house but no go as wheelbarrow won't fit through doorways,so we had to take it in turns wheelbarrowing the poo manure via the alleyway at the back in relays, so now I am going to start spreading it today!

Another item we brought over is my plastic greenhouse, so am going to attempt to put that up today, will let you know later if I was successful or not! BFN!!!!!!!!!

Poo collecting!

Well yesterday I was really lucky with the weather, it was gorgeous - unlike today - it is tipping it down! We arrived at my house at Nr La Gacilly where I have my Gites (www.farmhousegites.com), with 2 friends of ours Karen & Rick, they kindly said they would bring their trailor so we could collect lots of horsey poo from a neighbour of mine John up the road! there was also an ulterior motive as they wanted a lot for their veggie garden, well this poo after we had taken off the top layer was near enough pure compost underneath, it was absolutely crawling with worms, loads of them - was like the day of the triffids worms! now I hate worms they give me the creeps, and I was really worried as I was standing on the top of this massive pile whilst shovelling it into the trailor and sinking the same time, that it would get into my 'shorty' boots! Rick is a 'manure' expert and said he had never seen such wonderful poo! he is also a fishing enthusiast as well as is my Keithy, and said as they were wriggling so much they were ideal for fishing - he's going to nurture some out for his next fishing trip! - OK don't tell him but I might let Keithy search our poo, if he's a good boy, when it gets delivered later!




Poor Rick though he got 'stuck' in the field as the trailor was so heavily laden (greedy???) that he couldn't get up to the top of the field to freedom, he made some lovely skid marks!!! eventually I said I will get some help, so beckoned my French neighbours over, and with a lot of talking (cursing) and shoving and lifting, the 7 of us got it to the top of the hill and back onto the road, must remember to get them a bottle of Ricard to share next time to say thank you! Luckily Rick had cut the hedge for me before this fiasco, and it is a long hedge I can tell you, he cut lots of the brambles down, as they are really getting out of hand, whilst Karen and I were madly digging the veggie patch ready for the poo, in this pic you can see Karen lending a hand at digging, but she was too shy to show her face, you wait Karen I will catch you unaware!


We also managed to do a spot of sunbathing whilst eating lunch, was so warm, then a bit of painting of the end gite inside and out. Right my next update on my gardening here will be when I re-visit on Thursday next - so watch this space again!

I'm off today digging n' muck spreading'

Right I'm off a digging and muck spreading today at my house where the Gites are! luckily there is a small team of us, nice weather too, so will update tonight with pics!!

PS This had better be worthwhile - but then of course it will be, I've only got to think of those lovely veggies I will (might) get! Just remembered my boots - gosh can you imagine what it would be like without squelch yeeeuuukkk!

PPS The above pic encourages me to get going - this was taken last year in September the last of those veggies there, and that was without horse poo - can you imagine the size they will be this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

My other Veggie Patch - What a Mess!

I went to my other house yesterday to dig up the rest of the veggies before I have horse poo dug in on Monday! what a neglected mess it looks at the moment, not so easy when you are not living there!
I pulled out the last of the leeks, can't you see that no manure had been added before, they are near enough the size they were when I put them in last year! I think I might as well plant the thinner


ones into my plot here! I also picked the last of the swedes, they are going to go into our pot-au-feur today. I thought I had carrots as well but they had rotted in the ground!


I also thought it was odd that my parsnips had grown beautifully in the last month or so, funny I thought, there was no sign of them growing well before, but, on closer inspection, I realised that they were my white radishes from last year - honestly they were as big as parsnips - full of holes - whoops! mustn't make the same mistake this year!


I was going great guns thinking I will have weeded my patch before I go home last evening ready for Monday, when beep beep, thinking whose that? it was my friends/neighbours Paul and Roz! so as you do, we stood talking for a while (well Paul did LOL) I reckon it was for a very long while, cos when they left it was too late to do any more work! got my work cut out on Monday now - watch this space!!!!!!!

Have a look at Paul & Roz's website of their great life here in Brittany and the vast menagerie they have at http://www.halfacrefarm.bretondiary.com - makes interesting reading and viewing!

VILLE FLEURIE!

Well today is a damp, miserable and cold day, no gardening going on whatsoever - so what better then to tell you a bit about 'Villes et Villages Fleuries" which translated means Towns and Villages in Flower! these are stunning over here, Just look for this sign when entering a village or town in France then you will know what to expect!


This is a great scheme which they adopt over here, ranging from one flower to 4 flowers, this is open to any town or village throughout France, and is judged on the environment, the quality of life, the welcome and of course the quality, quantity and layout of flowers. A trophy is awarded to up to 9 of the best towns or villages in a grand ceremony on the 15th of June!

The town of LA GACILLY nearby to where my Gites are at www.farmhousegites.com - I am proud to say has 4 flowers, if you perhaps are thinking of staying at my place, LA GACILLY is a fantastic place to visit especially with its stunning weir see pic above - and of course is full of flowers!

Have a look at the local tourist office for La Gacilly and its surrounding areas to get a feel of what I mean at http://www.paysdelagacilly.com/

ENJOY!

A discovery in the garden!

I have dug a little more today in our garden in between the showers, (was getting quite a sweat on) when I found about 4 potatoes my landlady must have forgotten to dig up! looks like they are Desiree's but not sure??? must ask her!

There would have been more tatties, but not knowing anything would be in there my fork had spiked the others to bits!


Oh well that saves me going to the shops tonight for Joshy's tea! he can have boiled potatoes with boiled potatoes and perhaps mash with the spiked potatoes! Poor kid what a rotten mum I am not feeding him properly!

Gardening time! - Please follow my Diary!

TODAY I will be starting my Gardening Diary for the year! I have a property, a large Longere divided into 3 Gites called La Maison des Fleurs, as the name implies, it is every summer full of flowers, the picture here was taken outside one of my Gites last year. The grounds of my place are approximately 1 acre, which makes for hard work to keep lawns mowed, weeds down etc. My property is for sale, but as our economic climate is so disastrous there is no real interest, which means I will be continuing renting out the gites.

*******************

This year, I certainly will have my work cut out, as I have moved to be with my partner Keith and now live in Josselin in a rented house with a garden a totally different size being just a mere 6m x 12m approx. so much more manageable! I will be also concentrating a lot on making the 'smaller' garden a blaze of colour, and full with veggies, I find that an exciting prospect!

Here you can see the 'before' pictures of our rented place, as it stands today, rather dull and grey looking but hopefully in the coming months you should see a riot of colour developing!


These 2 pics show the area by the back door, which unfortunately does not get a lot of sunshine, mmmm got a lot of thinking what to put there that doesn't need a lot of sunshine! This is also the place where Keith has his very early morning contemplation along with the cats who can not understand why he is outside and not in a warm bed!

Poor fella has Central Sleep Apnoea and is up all hours in the morning, this morning it was 1am, 2am, 3am and so on - hence I would like to make this area very special for him, any ideas would be gratefully received! PS I will be doing a thread on Sleep Apnoea in the near future to make people aware of this debilitating disease.

********************

If I can fill my Gites, I will be employing someone to cut the grass at La Maison des Fleurs and generally maintain the garden ie cutting the hedges etc., I will still be concentrating on my flowers for there, but greatly reduced mainly my 10 hanging baskets. Have a look at an example of one of the 10 hanging baskets I made up for the front of my Gites one year - it looked stunning!